KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City’s warts are real.
The turnovers, the penalties, the dropped passes — those issues were apparent again, even in a lopsided win Sunday at New England.
But the Chiefs, who now have a two-game lead over Denver in the quest for an eighth straight AFC West title, also remain in a strong position to be the AFC’s top seed — believe it or not.
“When you’re as close as the AFC is right now, wins are hard to get and you better enjoy each one,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. "They're very important. This one is no different than that because of the situation."
Kansas City has played 13 straight home playoff games, including all 11 non-Super Bowl games Patrick Mahomes has started in his NFL career. He’s never played a true road playoff game — well, aside from Super Bowl LV against the Buccaneers in Tampa, Florida.
The Chiefs improved to 9-5 with Sunday’s win in New England and will be favored in each of their final three games, barring an injury to Patrick Mahomes — heck, maybe even then.
“It’s a momentum thing,” said linebacker Willie Gay Jr., who had a key interception to set up a touchdown in the third quarter against the Patriots. “We roll off this one and play even better next week — offense and defense. ... We’ll try to roll into the playoffs with this same momentum and just go from there.”
Kansas City welcomes the Aidan O’Connell-led Las Vegas Raiders on Christmas Day next week before hosting Jake Browning-led Cincinnati on New Year’s Eve and closing the season at the Easton Stick-led Los Angeles Chargers, who fired coach Brandon Staley and general manager Tom Telesco this week.
That’s a much easier schedule down the stretch than the other two AFC front-runners, Baltimore and Miami.
The Dolphins improved to 10-4 by slobber-knocking the New York Jets on Sunday. Up next, Miami hosts Dallas, then plays at the Ravens and finishes the regular season with Buffalo at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
The Chiefs own the head-to-head tiebreaker by virtue of the win in Germany in early November, so one loss by Miami flings the door wide open for Kansas City.
Meanwhile, Baltimore hosts AFC South-leading Jacksonville on Sunday Night Football and plays at San Francisco next week.
After the showdown with the Dolphins on New Year’s Eve, the Ravens close the regular season against Pittsburgh at home, a game that’s always a dogfight in the feisty AFC North.
If Baltimore splits its remaining four games and Kansas City wins out, the Chiefs overtake the Ravens in the standings, even though the margin for error this season clearly hasn't been the same as it’s been in recent seasons.
Mahomes and company simply need to take care of business against a slew of backup QBs each of the next three games to be right where they’ve been the last five seasons — with the road to the Super Bowl running through GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
While that doesn't mean Kansas City has become the favorite to make the Super Bowl from the AFC, nor should it, the schedule sets up favorably so that the contenders to dethrone the Chiefs may have to do it inside the NFL's loudest stadium.
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